The Marginalian
The Marginalian

Reads from 2015

The Soul of an Octopus: How One of Earth’s Most Alien Creatures Illuminates the Wonders of Consciousness
The Soul of an Octopus: How One of Earth’s Most Alien Creatures Illuminates the Wonders of Consciousness

“While stroking an octopus, it is easy to fall into reverie. To share such a moment of deep tranquility with another being, especially one as different from us as the octopus, is a humbling privilege… an uplink to universal consciousness.”

read article

Leo: A Ghost Story Subverting Cultural Stereotypes
Leo: A Ghost Story Subverting Cultural Stereotypes

A heartening parable of seeing through difference, meeting the unfamiliar with friendliness, and dignifying the reality of the other.

read article

Nikki Giovanni’s Wonderful Poems Celebrating Libraries and Librarians
Nikki Giovanni’s Wonderful Poems Celebrating Libraries and Librarians

“(You never know what troubled little girl needs a book)”

read article

The Physicist and the Philosopher: Einstein, Bergson, and the Debate That Changed Our Understanding of Time
The Physicist and the Philosopher: Einstein, Bergson, and the Debate That Changed Our Understanding of Time

How the debris of a landmark disagreement became the foundation of our present ideas about the fabric of existence.

read article

The Best Art Books of 2015
The Best Art Books of 2015

Urban dogs, underworld dragons, the unseen Peanuts, and every living person in New York.

read article

Henry Beston on Whimsicality, the Limits of Knowledge, and What Science Is and Isn’t
Henry Beston on Whimsicality, the Limits of Knowledge, and What Science Is and Isn’t

“A world without wonder, and a way of mind without wonder, becomes a world without imagination, and without imagination man is a poor and stunted creature.”

read article

The Best Science Books of 2015
The Best Science Books of 2015

From Earth’s largest-hearted creature to the interconnectedness of the universe, by way of Einstein and artificial intelligence.

read article

The Art of Discovering and Combining: Ada Lovelace on the Nature of the Imagination and Its Two Core Faculties
The Art of Discovering and Combining: Ada Lovelace on the Nature of the Imagination and Its Two Core Faculties

“It seizes points in common, between subjects having no very apparent connexion, & hence seldom or never brought into juxtaposition.”

read article

The Menino: An Illustrated Love Letter to the Mysterious and Mystifying Creature That Is a New Baby
The Menino: An Illustrated Love Letter to the Mysterious and Mystifying Creature That Is a New Baby

From breastfeeding to theory of mind, a delightful developmental odyssey seen from the parallel perspectives of parent and child.

read article

James Thurber on Longing, Unrequited Love, and the Power of a Kiss
James Thurber on Longing, Unrequited Love, and the Power of a Kiss

“Kissing seems not a great matter, in a way. And yet in one way it speaks the million things which words can’t.”

read article

View Full Site

The Marginalian participates in the Bookshop.org and Amazon.com affiliate programs, designed to provide a means for sites to earn commissions by linking to books. In more human terms, this means that whenever you buy a book from a link here, I receive a small percentage of its price, which goes straight back into my own colossal biblioexpenses. Privacy policy. (TLDR: You're safe — there are no nefarious "third parties" lurking on my watch or shedding crumbs of the "cookies" the rest of the internet uses.)